Don’t believe your mother: Your work doesn’t speak for itself. Cultivating your reputation depends on one thing: what others think. Here are three ways to juice word-of-mouth:

• Support others’ reputations on social media. Like them and they’ll like you back. Can you cash ‘likes’ at the bank? No. But people are more likely to do business with folks they know, and when your positive reputation precedes you, that’s one less obstacle to building rapport.
• Comment on others’ blogs and on articles at well-read publications in your industry and in your profession. Then you can post links to the original work as well as your comment. You’ve affiliated with someone whose point of view you admire. That reflects well on you.
• Be responsive to journalists, even when you are starting with stories that have local reach. Journalists mine each others’ work for leads. Don’t underestimate the value of building local relationships.

Get started with your media outreach strategy with the tips in this Use the News article that just ran in American Building Today. See that? You’re more interested in reading more because you’re wondering what American Building Today ‘liked’ enough to publish. That’s how it’s done!